Winter's Fury
by Miss Phyllis Baxter
Summary: The way I would like to see ASOIF ending. POV chapters from: Melisandre, Selyse, Mance Rayder, Jon Snow, Stannis, Davos, Shireen, Devan and Asha. In no particular order.
1. Chapter 1: Melisandre

Melisandre

Melisandre came flying from the King's Tower at the screams. It didn't take her long to see Jon Snow laying in the blood soaked snow. She raced to his side, crouching beside him. "Jon," she said, more than a hint of worry in her voice. He couldn't die now. She could not lose Stannis and Jon in the same day. It was too much. "Jon, please don't be dead. Please." Her voice was a complete beg as she flipped him over. She knew that she could bring him back, that R'hllor would permit her to do so. She knew, through tales that Thoros of Myr had brought Beric Dondarrion back on several occasions, while she had been so much more faithful to R'hllor than Thoros ever had. She leaned towards Jon, not feeling any breath leaving him. She closed her eyes, praying that R'hllor would give Jon back. _Please, my Lord, please. Jon Snow cannot die now. He and I need to save the King. King Stannis, your instrument, my Lord. _After a moment of begging, Melisandre collapsed on top of the Lord Commander and began to cry. The tears evaporated as they hit her cheeks, but it didn't matter at all. Her praying hadn't worked. Maybe she had failed R'hllor in some way.

She continued sobbing until she felt a hand touch her back. "Who?" she heard Jon ask, sounding very confused. She felt his chest tighten as he moved to try and sit up. "Lady Melisandre, what did you do?" Melisandre lifted her head up, throwing her arms around him, glad that R'hllor had not failed her when she needed someone to come back.

"I saved you, Lord Commander, from death," she explained. "I couldn't just let you die. Stannis would be upset with me and not to mention, I wouldn't have anyone accompanying me south to find Stannis at Winterfell. Mance is there as well, we have to save them Jon."

"I agree, but when I revealed that to my brothers, they tried to kill me," he replied.

"And now they will see that you cannot be killed, Jon Snow," she said. "Not while I'm around. Now, we need horses and supplies, right? You'd know more about packing supplies, so I'll leave you to do that, and I'll get the horses saddled and ready, and I'll be waiting for you in the stables, alright?"

"You have this all planned out, don't you, my lady?" he asked.

"That I do, Jon Snow," she replied. "He is my king, I am faithful, loyal and more in love with him than I could ever express."

"Does Stannis know that last bit?" he asked curiously, with a hint of a smile.

"I doubt it, and if he did, we wouldn't have a snowball's chance in one my hands," she replied. "He's so honourable and even though I love him for everything he is, his honour prevents us from making love rather than simply acting on a duty."

"I see," he replied as Melisandre stood and helped him to his feet. "Thank you, my lady."

"You're welcome," she replied. "And yet, there's a part of me that hopes that one day, Stannis and I will be alone and one of us will say something and we'll look at one another, into each others eyes and lose control. I pray that this will happen."

"Do you think it will happen one day, my lady?" Jon asked.

"I think so, but not for a long while," she said, frowning slightly. "Now, we can talk on the journey. We need to leave soon, else when we arrive at Winterfell, Stannis may be dead."

"Of course, my lady," he replied. "I will meet you in the stables as quickly as I can. I promise."

"Of course, Jon," Melisandre said, the two of them turning and heading to where they needed to go. Melisandre hurried to the stables. She nearly barked at the stable boy when telling him that she needed two horses saddled. She tapped her foot and drummed her fingers on her arm as she waited impatiently for the boy to finish. Every second they wasted here at Castle Black, Stannis was left in danger. "Could you please hurry?"

"I apologize, my lady," he said, and after barely a minute, he handed her the reins. She left the stables and walked around, waiting for Jon. After a moment, she heard light footsteps behind her and she spun around. Selyse was approaching her with a stern look on her face.

"Where are you going, my lady?" Selyse asked.

"To my king, he needs me," Melisandre replied.

"Whatever for?" Selyse asked. "Did he send a raven?"

"No, but there's news and it isn't good, and he needs me," Melisandre replied as Jon came around the corner. "Is everything ready Jon, do you have everything we need?"

"What news?" Selyse asked. "Tell me now, he is my husband. My husband and my king. All he is to you is a king."

"That is not true, my queen, you know that. He is everything to me," Melisandre growled. "I am nothing without him, I could never feel anything worth feeling without him. I love him."

"He's not yours to love. He's mine. He married me in the sight of the Gods and men," Selyse spat, full of anger.

"False Gods," Melisandre corrected. "Don't go holding on to things done in their name. Things done before them mean nothing to me and nothing to the son of fire."

"He's still my husband, and you know that he refuses to remarry me in the sight of R'hllor, the one true God," Selyse replied, tears filling her eyes.

"Because he doesn't love you enough to do so. Now, if you'll please excuse me, Lord Snow and I are leaving to go and save my king," Melisandre said, mounting her horse as Jon mounted his. The two looked at each other for barely a moment before riding off at a fast pace.


	2. Chapter 2: Selyse

Selyse

Selyse watched as Lord Snow and the red priestess rode off into the horizon. Who were they do take her place? To act on the things she should act on? She huffed lightly and turned to walk back to the King's Tower. She wasn't even going to try and follow them as they went to... what were they going to do? All she knew was that they were going to Stannis. She stormed up the steps of Castle Black until she was stopped by a black brother calling after her. She spun around, anger clouding her features. "Yes," she demanded.

"I just wondered if you knew about your husband, Your Grace," he said, holding out a letter. She stepped down a few stairs, almost closing the gap between herself and the brother, snatching the letter from his hands and unrolling it. Her eyes scanned the letter quickly, noticing a few points more than others. "So, my husband is dead and now Lady Melisandre and that Lord Commander of yours have gone to do something with him?" she asked.

"Lord Commander Snow was stabbed and was dying in the snow," the young man told her.

"What?" Selyse asked. "No, I'm positive that Lord Snow left with Lady Melisandre."

"I don't see how he could have, Your Grace," he said confused as Selyse stared at him. He turned and left her where she stood. Selyse shook her head a moment or so later proceeded back to the King's Tower. She went to her daughter's bedchamber and entered.

"Shireen, there's news of your father," Selyse said after her daughter looked up from her book at her. _Why couldn't __I have given Stannis a son, secured the line of the one true king? I failed him, and I doubt that even if I could save him, he'd prefer having Lady Melisandre save him, _she thought as she looked at her daughter. She loved Shireen, but Shireen was a living reminder of her failure.

"What is it mother?" Shireen asked.

"Your father might be dead, making our prime goal to get you onto the Iron Throne as his heiress," Selyse said.

"Father can't be dead. He promised me that we'd go to King's Landing and he'd get me a really pretty horse," Shireen replied. "Father never broke a promise to me."

"Well, if your father promised you that he wouldn't die, that was a foolish promise to make, people die every day," Selyse snapped. She bit her lip afterwards, shocked that she had snapped at her daughter like that. "I'm sorry, but it's true."

"Where's the red woman?" Shireen asked. "She'd tell me if father's dead or not."

"She's left the Wall with that bastard Lord Commander," Selyse replied, resenting the boy simply because of the fact that he was a bastard. Edric Storm was a bastard of her cousin and Stannis' late elder brother that had been conceived on her wedding night. He was the curse of her marriage, and because of him, she hated all bastards. At least she had a good reason for her hatred for bastards, unlike many others.

"Then she's gone to save father. It means that he isn't dead," Shireen said. "She'll bring father back and he'll still be king."

"Either that or she's foolishly acting on her feelings for him, hoping he's alive when she gets to Winterfell," Selyse replied. "He doesn't love her, he doesn't love anyone. He'll never return her feelings."

"Father loves me," Shireen said. "And I think he does love Lady Melisandre. He's always very good to her, they enjoy each others company and he values her a great deal."

"Don't say that, you have no idea what love is. And if he loves her, he's wrong. He should love me," Selyse said quietly. "He's married to me. I've tried with him, I really have."

"You can't force someone to love you, mother," Shireen whispered, going back to the book she was reading. Selyse shook her head, not exactly pleased that her daughter had ended their conversation on that note. She turned and left her daughter's bedchamber, going to her own which was down the corridor from Stannis' (whilst Lady Melisandre's was right next to his). She walked across the room, and sat on her bed with the letter she had taken from the young man of the Night's Watch. She read it over again. _Your false king is dead... I have his magic sword. Tell his red whore... I want the false king's queen. I want his daughter and his red witch. _The words on the page gave her a few emotions. The first was anger that this _bastard _of the Dreadfort may have killed her husband and that this bastard seemed to believe Melisandre should be told before she was of his death. The second was hope. Hope that Melisandre and Jon Snow would be good enough in the place of herself and Shireen. The bastard in place of a queen and a princess wasn't likely to please this lunatic, but he might have more fun killing the bastard than anyone else.

She lay down on her bed, clutching the letter in one of her fists. She envied Lady Melisandre more than she hated her. She envied that Lady Melisandre could make her husband more happy than she had ever managed to. She envied that Melisandre had offered him a son, which she had never managed to give him. She envied the other woman's beauty. She envied her and wanted her at the same time. She sighed and threw the letter across the room. What did this bastard want to do with her, Shireen and Melisandre? Melisandre would soon be in his clutches, especially if Stannis was dead. Even if Stannis was alive, she may be held captive along with Jon Snow. She shut her eyes, trying to not picture Stannis being flayed by a Bolton bastard, and after some time, she fell asleep.


End file.
